University of Michigan-Flint student using graduation garb to pay off student loan debt

View full sizeAlex Benda, a 22-year-old University of Michigan-Flint senior, is selling 1 inch-by-1 inch spaces of his graduation cap to help pay down his student loan debt.Courtesy Photo

FLINT, MI -- University of Michigan-Flint senior Alex Benda has a plan to reduce his $30,000 mountain of student debt -- one inch at a time.

The 22-year-old self-described “Army brat” has started an online campaign to sell 1 inch-by-1 inch spaces on his 10 inch-by-10 inch graduation cap for the May 4 commencement at Perani Arena to try and reduce the amount of debt he’ll enter life with once outside of hallways of academia.

Benda, a 2009 St. Clair High School graduate who aspires to use his problem-solving skills to help people, wrote in his entry on the GoGetFunding webpage "I realized that I would have the eyes of every graduating student and their family's on me as I walked across the stage to accept my diploma."

As the youngest of six children, Benda was told early on that he’d have to pay for his way through college, with his siblings entering the military like his father Greg who retired as a Lt. Colonel from the armed services.

While some of them are just finishing or beginning their academic pursuits, Benda will be the first of his siblings to walk across the stage in May and receive a bachelor’s degree with a double major in International Business and Entrepreneurship, having received his first itch for marketing and business while trying to buy some Pokemon trading cards as a child.

After Linda Benda, Alex’s mother, bought him a pack of the playing cards for a birthday, Benda took to selling lemonade by the roadside of their Virginia home to collect money for another pack, but Linda advised him to spend money on more lemonade before searching out more Pikachus or Dragonites to trade with friends.

“That went through with me,” said Benda of their conversation. In high school, he sold universal television remotes, which allowed him to buy his first camera to start a photography business shooting wedding and senior pictures.

“Everybody just kept saying you have a knack for business,” he said, adding business to him is about “creating a system to all people to help themselves” instead of keeping all the equity for one's self.

Money raised doing photography helped Benda in paying for room and board following, while he also receiving a half-ride scholarship his first two years of college. But the well began to run dry and he went the route which thousands of other college students move towards – student loans.

The Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success, estimated the average four-year graduate ended their collegiate career in 2012 with $29,400 in unpaid loans, with the figure at $26,899 for UM-Flint students.

Benda, editor-in-chief at the Michigan Times, the student newspaper, read a story more than a year ago about Harvard grads trying to raise money to pay off their debts, which he said has stuck with him all these months later in making his graduation cap a sounding board for whomever wants to make a donation to his cause.

“I’m going to have all eyes on me for one moment,” he said, putting the marketing expertise – obtained in books and life -- to use, with plans on taking pictures of his mortar board to Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr pages. “Maybe I can find something mutually beneficial.”

UM-Flint spokesman Mel Serow said there are no regulations against Benda decorating the top of his graduation hat, which he said has become a tradition amongst graduates.

Using a mortar board for ad space, however, is a new one for Serow.

"I've been to 24 of our commencements and I've never heard of anything like it," he said.

Benda has 100 spots available for anything within reason and in good taste, with availability for people to purchase more than one space. He’s received $1,295 thus far in a few days, with 13 backers including his girlfriend Kayla Cornell, former Kappa Sigma fraternity brother and old acquaintance.

If he exceeds his goal, Benda said he would donate the money towards a scholarship at the university or another student in need after graduation.

He doesn’t have plans on heading to grad school at this point, noting “I’d like to get some real world experience” and is actively pursuing a job in state and out of the area with the economy offering slim pickings that may force him to leave but that's not putting a damper on his efforts.